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Primary Submission Category: Structural factors
Structural Racism, Natural Disaster, and Health: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis, 1989-2019
Authors: Arinala Randrianasolo, Jessie Slepicka,
Presenting Author: Arinala Randrianasolo*
Racial disparities in health outcomes associated with natural disasters are well documented in the United States, yet the structural mechanisms producing these inequalities remain underexamined. Existing research often focuses on disaster-specific mortality rates or qualitative case studies, leaving limited understanding of how broader systems of racial stratification shape differential health vulnerability across hazards, places, and time. This study examines whether structural racism functions as a key mechanism linking natural disaster exposure to racial disparities in population health.
We integrate county-level natural hazard data from the Spatial Hazard Events and Loss Database for the United States (SHELDUS), covering 1989–2019, with newly constructed measures of structural racism at both the state and county levels. State-level structural racism is operationalized using a latent construct capturing racial inequality across economic, educational, political, criminal-legal, and residential segregation domains. County-level measures capture Black–White disparities in incarceration, homeownership, educational attainment, income, unemployment, poverty, and segregation. These measures are linked to race-disaggregated health outcomes derived from national surveillance systems (e.g., Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, National Vital Statistics System mortality data, Decennial Census).
Using spatiotemporal analytic approaches, we examine whether structural racism mediates or amplifies the relationship between disaster exposure and racial disparities in morbidity and mortality. By integrating environmental hazard data with multidimensional measures of structural racism across multiple spatial scales, this study advances environmental justice and population health scholarship by empirically evaluating structural racism as a mechanism producing unequal health consequences of disasters. Anticipated findings will inform disaster preparedness, recovery policy, and public health interventions aimed at reducing racialized health vulnerabilities in an era of increasing climate-related hazards and risks.